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Author
Topic: How long does it takes for CD4 to drop to 250 (Read 7336 times)

Hi,I was tested positive in 31 Dec 2009... destroying my New Year mood completely. I had my blood taken and last Monday I was told that my CD4 is 253. I'm in a relationship for 7 years and only start seing others after that.... that was 1 and a half year back.My X is negetive. Thank God.My question is can my CD4 drop to that level that fast... I was given combivir and neviraphine and more check up in two weeks time. I just want to pin point when I was affected...

It's nearly impossible to know when you were infected going by your CD4 numbers. Some people progress slowly, some progress more quickly. It could be you are a fast progressor or it could be that you're recently infected and your body hasn't adjusted to your virus yet. It's not uncommon to have low numbers in the first few months of infection. The only real way for a person to know when they were infected is by having regular hiv antibody tests. If this wasn't done before infection, then there's no real way of knowing for sure.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

As ann says we are all different so it depends but a normal cd4 drop according to my specialist is 50 to 100 per year

That's a "rule of thumb" commonly used, but it still won't tell a person when they were infected. After all, how many of us know what our CD4 counts were like before infection? Without this knowledge, there is no way of knowing how far a person's CD4s have actually dropped. For all we know, the OPs pre-infection CD4s could have been naturally low.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

That's a "rule of thumb" commonly used, but it still won't tell a person when they were infected. After all, how many of us know what our CD4 counts were like before infection? Without this knowledge, there is no way of knowing how far a person's CD4s have actually dropped. For all we know, the OPs pre-infection CD4s could have been naturally low.

Ann

I prefer Ann's way of looking at it over the physician's rule of thumb, and here is why; When I had over 1000 CD4, fluctuations---up or down---were often over 100 (10%) and i would guess insignificant---they certainly never graphed into a trend up or a trend down. BUT...dropping just 50 when you're 300 might matter, because that's a 17% decline. We can reassure you that while this is a troubling to the emotions of newbies, it often isn't medically significant provided you're newly infected (well under a year). I don't mean it doesn't matter, just that it might not matter. make sense? BTW: i have had CD4 under 300 myself. With meds now, i hope to not see those numbers again any time soon.

i can tell you that after 4 months of infection my partner was down at 350 cd4, i stayed over 1000 cd4 for quite some time until out of no where it just dropped to 650 cd4 and stayed there so like Ann said everyones different.. dont worry too much about how long you been infected, whats important now is that you become a more healthy person ( eating habits, excercise) and that you take your meds as directed by your ID doctor.

Is there any chance that my CD4 drop to 250 in just a year after affected ?

You're welcome.

It is possible - as I said, low numbers are not uncommon in the first months of infection. However, it is also very, very possible and even probably that they will go up again once the body starts to learn how to deal with the virus.

And yes, it is also possible to be a fast progressor.

You will have a better idea of where you're at once you get a few more test results. We go by overall trends, not one set of results. You need at least three results before you can see any sort of a trend. Hang in there, you're going to be ok.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

Sorry to be replying late to this topic, but I only just noticed it now. One possible clue to when you were infected would be sero-conversion symptoms, if you had them. In my case they were dramatic: very swollen lymph nodes and serious flu-like symptoms. That this happened a couple of months after having unprotected sex made it clear what was happening. I also felt pretty awful (dizziness, weakness, diarrhea) for several months afterwards.

If you can remember illness of this type shortly after an activity that would have been likely to cause HIV, then that might well have been when you were infected.

Like Ann said, very few people know where they started out at so it is hard to say. In my case I sero-converted in October and it completely kicked my butt. I had a test done at the time and it was still neg, no antibodies yet. The following January my CD4 was at 252, ever since I have been around 300-400. Can't really say if the Sero-conversion just hit me hard and dropped by numbers or if my numbers were always on the low end of the spectrum. At the end of the day, they are just numbers, good to keep an eye on in case something IS going on, but usually they just give us obsessive compulsive folks something to focus on ;-)

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When we killed what we were to become what we are, what did we do with the bodies? We did what most people do; buried them under the floorboards and got used to the smell - Jeannette Winterson